Really Good, Actually: The must-read major Sunday Times bestselling debut novel of 2023

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anyways, i really liked this one! and it's one of those books that feels weird so say you "liked" or "loved" because of the flawed main character ... and boy is she FLAWED! i agree that there were a lot of moments that i cringed through while the FMC self sabotaged her life, but something about it felt relatable? plus (while it does take a while to get there) her character growth is EVERYTHING. i was so pleased with the ending and to see how far maggie had come. and not to mention this book is FUNNY. the sarcasm, wit, and dry humor sprinkled throughout was top notch. Vacillating between the cringe-worthy/second-hand embarrassment-fueled moments of a person with no self-awareness.. and absolute heart-wrenching grief and denial... this story is hard to read. Somewhat in a good way, somewhat in a bad way? It's categorized as a novel, but most definitely makes you wonder how much of was real for the author. Recommended by Los Angeles Times • Washington Post • GQ• Elle • Good Morning America • People • Guardian • The Times • E! News Online • The Globe and Mail • Toronto Star • The Week • New York Post • Shondaland • and many more!

Really Good, Actually – HarperCollins Publishers UK

Maggie’s marriage has ended just 608 days after it started, but she’s fine – she’s doing really good, actually. Sure, she’s alone for the first time in her life, can’t afford her rent and her obscure PhD is going nowhere . . . but at the age of twenty-nine, Maggie is determined to embrace her new status as a Surprisingly Young Divorcée™. However, it just goes on and on. It’s way too long as it’s all basically the same theme so there’s a lot of repetition. There isn’t a plot as such as it’s just Maggie‘s exploration of various things which eventually gets tedious. I can’t say either that I especially like her as a central protagonist and this is one of those occasions where I think that is important. She tires me out, wears me down quite simply drives me round the bend. Some references mean nothing to me as a reader in the United Kingdom but will mean something to North American readers. Her first book, I Can't Believe It's Not Better, a collection of essays, short stories, and—in an unlikely twist—poems, was published in 2015, and was a Globe & Mail, National Post, and CBC “Best Book of the Year.” This was also the year of her first television job, as a member of the writing room for the sketch comedy series Baroness von Sketch Show (CBC/IFC). She worked on all five seasons of Baroness, and, with the rest of the writing room, was awarded four Canadian Screen Awards for comedy writing. I feel like when you get a divorce everyone’s wondering how you ruined it all, what made you so unbearable to be with. If your husband dies, at least people feel bad for you. Kind of. He’d moved out, taking the cat (for now) and a gaming system and three acoustic guitars. The idea of Jon writing breakup songs in some dark sublet filled me with equal parts deep despair and incredible relief—despair, to think that I had caused him such pain he’d been driven to experimental songwriting; relief, that I wouldn’t have to listen to it.I've never been through a divorce, but they happen every day to the people we love around us... it was a great insight into what people really go through in cleaving their life from someone else's. I think the reason I had a hard time with this, even though there are some great insights... so much of this is a rambling mess? Really Good, Actuallyis a goddamn delight. Heisey doesn't shy away from any of the hard stuff,showcasing the myriad ways people turn into little monsters when theirhearts get broken and lose sight of themselves. This novel is wildly funny andcompulsively readable, the kind of book you immediately share with your best friend. I adored it." — Kristen Arnett, New York Timesbestselling author of Mostly Dead Things It's incredibly funny, but it's also very honest about selfishness, and about being the heartbroken one in a group of friends. I loved it — it made me laugh a million times. It is really warm and I related an awful lot. Anyone who has ever been young and selfish — which is all of us — can definitely identify!”— Marian Keyes, author of Grown Ups -

Really Good, Actually: The funny, relatable No. 2 Sunday Really Good, Actually: The funny, relatable No. 2 Sunday

Gardner, Suzanne (16 July 2015). "I Can't Believe It's Not Better: A Woman's Guide to Coping with Life". Quill and Quire . Retrieved 7 July 2023.A bittersweet, satirical take on a "young" divorcee. . . . The results are bleak but often very funny." — Maclean's Impossibly funny, endearingly felt, alive and rich and ultimately a story of trying not only to find one's self but to figure out how best to care for the people we love. I woke up both my husband and my dog laugh-cryingwhile reading this book." — Lynn Steger Strong, author of Flight

REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY | Kirkus Reviews REALLY GOOD, ACTUALLY | Kirkus Reviews

Really Good, Actually opens with the line My marriage ended because I was cruel and the narrator Maggie continues with a list of reasons her marriage ended. With an opening like that, it can only go downhill, and that it did. We meet twenty-nine year old Maggie reeling from a divorce from her college sweetheart. They have been dating for a long time and finally got married, the marriage only lasted 608 days. Now Maggie must navigate a new world, single, broke, emotionally erratic and trying to find out who she is outside of the world she created with her ex-husband. One of the most hotly anticipated, hilarious and addictive debut novels of 2023, from Schitt’s Creek and Workin’ Moms screenwriter and electric new voice in fiction, Monica Heisey. Very funny—think Bridget Jones meets ‘Broad City’. . . . Heisey is making a career out of guiding characters through the kinds of crises we can laugh at and sympathize with all at once, while upending enough rom-com tropes to keep things interesting.”— Los Angeles Times

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Every sentence of Monica Heisey’s writing is a treat. Her observations on men, women, friendship, family, love, sexuality and womanhood are equal parts hilarious and profound. No one makes me laugh like she does.”— Dolly Alderton, bestselling author of Ghosts